Knowify runs job costing, progress and AIA billing, and quoting for trade and specialty subcontractors, with a foreman time clock that syncs approved hours to payroll. Keito is the reviewed layer for what those hours mean on the customer-facing bill: AI-drafted entries a crew member confirms, a reviewer signs off on billable status before a pay application or change order goes out, and evidence that holds up when a client questions a line on the draw.
Illustrative review queue
Illustrative billing period
Hours evidenced
Entries confirmed
58
Change-order hours
$1,940
Jobs billed
7
Labour hours tied to the job and phase
Project, phase, and billable status confirmed on entry
Reviewed before it reaches a pay application
A reviewer signs off on billing accuracy, not just payroll hours
Evidence behind the pay app or change order
Approved records back the bill, whichever system raises it
Knowify publishes job costing, progress and AIA billing, quoting, and a foreman-run mobile time clock for trade and specialty subcontractors, with time reviewed and approved for job costing and payroll before it syncs to QuickBooks Online Payroll. Keito answers a narrower question — once payroll has verified the hours, whose job is it to confirm those same hours are the right evidence for the pay application or change order the client sees.
Set up projects, phases, rates, and reviewers in Keito in days — Knowify keeps running job costing, progress billing, AIA pay applications, and quoting exactly as it does today.
Keito drafts time entries from the work that actually happened on a job, so a crew member or foreman confirms and corrects billable hours instead of reconstructing added scope from memory at billing time.
A reviewer settles billable status and write-down decisions before the period closes, then passes approved hours to whichever system turns the job into a pay application or invoice — Knowify’s workflow or otherwise.
A job-costing and billing platform vs a reviewed hours layer
Knowify is published as project and service-management software built specifically for trade and specialty subcontractors — electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and similar trades — rather than general contractors or home builders. Its documented scope covers job costing, progress billing (percentage, unit, or dollar), AIA G702/G703 pay applications with schedule of values and retainage, quoting, and a mobile time clock with optional geofencing that a foreman can use to log time for on-site crews. That time is reviewed and approved on a single screen — showing check-in location and hours worked, with the ability to approve, deny, comment, or split entries — before syncing to QuickBooks Online Payroll. Knowify’s own documentation frames that review as verifying hours "for job costing and payroll purposes"; it does not describe the approval as certifying what those hours mean on a specific AIA pay application line or a T&M change order the client will see. That gap shows up most on progress-billed and change-order work, where a subcontractor needs to show a client exactly which hours a piece of added scope consumed before it goes on a draw. Keito’s argument is not that a trade contractor needs a new job-costing or billing platform — it is that the labour hours behind a pay application deserve a review aimed at the client bill, not only at payroll. Keito drafts time entries from the work that actually happened, the crew member or foreman confirms them, and a reviewer approves billable status and any write-down before the entry becomes evidence for the pay app or change order. The boundary is deliberate: Keito has no job costing, progress or AIA billing, quoting, or payroll workflow, and it claims no native Knowify integration, automatic import, or synchronisation. Knowify keeps running the job cost and the bill; Keito makes sure the labour hours behind them are reviewed for the client bill, not only for payroll.
Choose Knowify when the business needs job costing, progress or AIA billing, quoting, and payroll-synced time running from one platform
Choose Keito when the problem is proving the labour hours behind a pay application or change order were reviewed for the client bill, not just payroll
Prove it in one billing cycle: Keito runs alongside Knowify, reviewing the hours without touching job costing or billing
Workflow fit
Keito keeps Knowify alternative connected to client, project, billable status, approval, and invoice context before the work reaches finance.
Choose Knowify when the business needs job costing, progress or AIA billing, quoting, and payroll-synced time running from one platform
Choose Keito when the problem is proving the labour hours behind a pay application or change order were reviewed for the client bill, not just payroll
Prove it in one billing cycle: Keito runs alongside Knowify, reviewing the hours without touching job costing or billing
Keito drafts entries from the work that happened on a job; crew members and foremen confirm and correct rather than reconstructing added scope from memory at pay-app time.
Knowify’s time approval verifies hours for job costing and payroll; Keito adds the sign-off that settles billable status and rate before hours reach a pay application or change order.
Reviewers approve hours and hand the evidence to whichever system turns the job into a bill — Knowify’s AIA or progress-billing workflow or otherwise — through exports or handoffs the team designs and tests itself.
The difference is not just recording time. It is whether the record can support billing, project decisions, and client conversations.
Product shape
A standalone workspace for reviewed billable hours, write-down decisions, and invoice evidence.
Knowify publishes job costing, progress and AIA billing, quoting, and document management for trade and specialty subcontractors.
How hours are captured
AI drafts entries from the work that happened; the crew member or foreman confirms them, and a reviewer approves before anything backs a pay application.
Knowify publishes a mobile time clock with optional geofencing that a foreman can use to clock in on-site crews against a project and phase.
Review before billing
A reviewer settles billable status and write-down decisions before the period closes.
Knowify’s published time review lets a manager approve, deny, or split entries and syncs them to payroll — described as verifying hours for job costing and payroll, not for a specific pay-application line.
Billing model fit
Built for the labour hours behind progress-billed and change-order work that need client-facing evidence.
Built around job costing, AIA pay applications, and progress billing, with time tracking as a supporting feature for payroll.
Pricing and adoption
Published flat team pricing and a setup measured in days, run alongside Knowify.
Knowify publishes per-user pricing on its entry and mid tiers, with an unlimited-user option available only on its custom-quoted top tier.
Data movement
Team-designed, tested exports and API handoffs moved in deliberate stages.
No native Keito-Knowify import or automatic synchronisation is assumed in either direction; Knowify’s own job-costing and billing tools belong to its platform.
It is software a trade contractor adopts instead of — or alongside — Knowify, which runs job costing, progress and AIA billing, quoting, and document management for specialty subcontractors. Because Knowify spans that much of the business, an alternative rarely replaces all of it at once. Keito is the alternative for the labour hours behind a pay application or change order specifically: AI-drafted entries confirmed by the person who did the work, reviewed for the client bill before they back it.
Knowify does track time. Its mobile time clock, with optional geofencing, lets a foreman clock in on-site crews against a project and phase, and a manager reviews the entries — approving, denying, commenting, or splitting them — on a screen that shows check-in location and hours worked, before the time syncs to QuickBooks Online Payroll. Knowify’s own documentation describes that review as verifying hours for job costing and payroll purposes; it does not describe the approval as validating a specific pay-application or change-order line.
The gap is what the review step is aimed at. Knowify’s time review verifies clocked hours for job costing and payroll accuracy. Keito adds a separate step: AI drafts a time entry from the work that happened, the crew member or foreman confirms it, and a reviewer approves billable status and any write-down before the entry becomes evidence for a pay application or change-order line. Knowify still owns job costing, progress and AIA billing, and quoting; Keito owns the reviewed record for the labour hours behind the bill.
Choose Knowify when the business needs to run job costing, progress or AIA billing, quoting, and payroll-synced time tracking from one platform. Keito does not reproduce any of that — no job costing, no AIA pay applications, no quoting, no payroll sync. It is the wrong choice if the immediate need is a job-costing and billing platform rather than a reviewed record of billable hours.
Each reviewed record keeps the project, phase, contributor, duration, description, billable status, rate context, reviewer, approval state, write-down decision, and billing period. That package backs the pay application or change-order line Knowify — or any other system — turns into a bill, and gives a contractor a reviewed answer when a client questions the labour hours behind a progress draw.
No. Keito claims no native Knowify integration, automatic import, or two-way synchronisation — Knowify’s own job-costing, billing, and payroll-sync tools belong to its platform, not Keito’s. Capture in Keito is its own workflow: AI-drafted, typed, timed, and manually entered records that pass review before becoming invoice evidence. A contractor can keep Knowify for job costing and billing and run Keito alongside it as the reviewed hours layer, with any transfer between them designed and tested by the team.
Solo includes 1 licensed user, unlimited AI agents, Mac desktop and iOS apps, Stripe payments, and standard CSV and Excel exports. Pro adds your team. Business adds integrations, planning, advanced reporting, and stronger controls.
1 licensed user
For independent consultants, freelancers, and small studios running work with AI agents.
Team collaboration
For teams that need shared workspaces, approvals, and team-level project visibility.
Advanced operations
For organizations that need integrations, planning, advanced reporting, and stronger controls.
AI agents do not require licenses on any plan.
Solo, Pro, and Business can use API keys for agent workflows.
Solo, Pro, and Business include standard CSV and Excel data export.
Start with Solo, add people on Pro when you need reviewers or collaborators, and see how Keito turns tracked effort into clearer reports.